The owner of a transport yard has been fined £2,000 after he failed to remove a hard surface for parking vehicles from green belt land.

Guiseppe Ricotta built hard standing on his land at Ricotta Transport Yard in Epping Road, Nazeing, without planning permission and in 2012 Epping Forest District Council refused to approve the development retrospectively.

The authority then issued an enforcement notice to re-instate the green belt land to its former condition.

Mr Ricotta lodged an appeal against the notice with the planning inspectorate but it was refused on June 11, 2013, and he was then required to comply with the order by September 11, 2013.

The Bishops Stortford resident was fined £2,000 and ordered to pay £453.31 in costs and a victim surcharge of £120.

He pleaded guilty to failing to comply with a planning enforcement notice when he appeared at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court on March 18.